Four Years
by FreekyDisaster18
Summary: Sometimes it's hard to remember a key date but their anniversary shouldn't be one of them, should it? S/E slash. Of the soft kind.


Despite their love for each other, Stuart and Ewan McIntyre-Fraser were extremely bad at remembering their wedding anniversary. How this was the case they did not know. Because seriously, your wedding anniversary was on the same date every year but yet it was a date they never remembered.

The first year, they had a legit excuse – or so they thought.

They had been too busy decorating their daughter's bedroom. The courts had finally finalised the decision that Ronan McIntyre-Fraser could stay with her biological father and his civil partner. After months of fighting it out in court, the hearing they had been praying for had happened. It was a momentous day and now they wanted little Ronan to know that she had a permanent home with them. Their little girl's life had been nothing but carrier bags and shared rooms since she was a child but that was not the case anymore and they were happy to give that to her.

So when their friends arrived that night with gifts, Chinese food and wide smiles they thought they had come to celebrate the news too but that had been greeted with silence. It had been Jenny that had broke the silence by reminding them it was their wedding anniversary. The two men had just looked at their friends before turning to look at each other and bursting out in laughter.

"I didn't buy you anything," they both said at the same time causing everyone to laugh at them as they moved into the oversized dining room of the house and started to set up for dinner. No one could believe that the two men had forgotten but no one as much as them too.

That night in their bed, they had lain together and just smiled at each other as they thought the situation over. "It's just a stupid date," Ewan promised as he stroked the curve of his husband's cheek and pressed a kiss to his lips. "Next year though, we'll do something special."

But they did not.

The second year, Stuart and the team were working a serial murder case. For six days straight now, they had been chasing dead ends and finding body parts all over the city leaving them no time to eat, sleep or even remember what day of the week it was.

So when their anniversary came without even a phone call, Ewan was pretty pissed. He knew that he should not be. He knew what he was signing up for when he had married a detective but seriously, even convicts got a phone call! When Stuart got home that night, his eyes tired thanks to the no hours of sleep and his muscles aching as he slipped into the bathroom that night.

Prepared for this, Ewan had filled the Jacuzzi bath to the brim with hot water and been generous with the amount of bubbles. He had then gone for the added cliché of a bottle of champagne, a dozen red roses and more petals were strewn around the place.

Despite the effort that Ewan had put into everything but all Stuart could feel when he walked into the small room was guilt for having forgotten about their anniversary again. How had he done it? He had written it on a damned calendar so that he would not forget. Slamming his hand against the wall, he had turned to his husband and tried to explain as tears fell down his face. He decided that a simple apology would be the best option. "I'm so sorry. I can't believe that I forgot!" Ewan had just shook his head, the anger that he had felt earlier dissipating at the sadness he saw in his husband's eyes.

Moving towards him, he rubbed his partner's back and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. "It's fine. I'm sure we'll get the hang of it eventually, right?"

Wrong.

The third year, Ewan forgot.

He had gone to Edinburgh to discuss the plans of opening a new nightclub up there and had decided to stay the night to drink with some old friends he had up there. This one night drinking session turned into two nights, then a week. Stuart did not mind. Ewan had always sacrificed his life so that he was there to look after Ronan every minute of the day while Stuart was chasing bad guys so Stuart had been happy to take the week off and spend time with his daughter. What he did not appreciate was his husband forgetting that it was their anniversary smack bang during his week binge.

Arriving home two days after their anniversary, Stuart was in a bad mood. He had put Ronan to bed and had poured himself a glass of the wine that Jackie had bought them for said anniversary so that he could lounge on the couch; alone. When his husband walked in, smelling like a brewery and singing some merry old tune about having a good time it was more than enough for him. He was about to fight it out when all of a sudden his husband slumped down on the couch next to him and fell asleep.

Stuart just rolled his eyes and headed off to bed; alone. It was becoming a pattern.

The next morning, Ewan apologised with words and both treating his family to a breakfast out in their favourite cafe. Stuart forgave him. They always did forgive each other and besides there would always be next year, right?

Four years.

In British traditions, that was flowers and fruits but the chances of them doing that for each other were slim.

Stuart was working hard on a case again and Ewan was dealing with some stresses with the nightclub so both of them had thought that the other one had forgotten.

So when Stuart got an oversized fruit basket to the police station with a simple message of 'here's to traditions, my love," whereas Ewan got an oversized bouquet of flowers that read "here's to traditions, my love" they both knew that neither had forgotten this year.

As the day unfolded, it turned out that not only did they remember to buy each other gifts but both received lunches from their favourite restaurants (Ewan doing it for the rest of the team and Stuart doing it for both his husband and daughter). Jackie could not help but laugh as Stuart explained to the team what was happening whereas Jenny explained it as both of them finally being in sync with each other but now they were too in sync.

Their romantic night ended with both Stuart and Ewan standing in their bedroom holding tickets to a show, but now they had four. With a laugh, Stuart just leant in and pressed a kiss against his husband's lips. "Can you believe that we've done this? Okay. Let's ditch a ticket and we'll take our beautiful daughter with us. I think it's her anniversary just as much as ours, right?"

Ewan just smiled down at him and nodded his head. "Right," he promised, pressing a last kiss to his husband's lips before moving out of the room to go get their daughter ready. However he was gone two seconds before he came rushing back in and took his husband's lips again, his hands threading through the blonde curls as he kissed with a passion that Stuart could not remember them sharing since their first few months together.

When the kiss ended, Ewan pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose. "Here's too many more, my love." He promised as he left the room again.

Stuart just laughed but he agreed. Here's too many more...

* * *

**AUTHORS NOTE:**

Well I know it's short, and it probably doesn't make sense. Like no sense at all.

Here's to four years of the Taggart archive, of my fanfiction writing and to the amazing friendship that I share with the lovely Lee and to the many more that will follow!


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